Along the way you’ll see recommendations to simplify your choices, but they don’t decide for you. And if some of them are ours... well maybe that’s because we’ve got a deal that could suit you.
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Design is a quality issue. If you buy in, will attractive and competent do, or is high gloss essential? Hosting is about image and cost. Free is very cheap but has a poor image. A Mall is cheap with an ok image. But if you must look good, go commercial.
Free services may limit options or charge to give you choice. A sub- domain lists you as yourname.hostname. A full domain can be whatever (available) name you want. |
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Domain names have become cheap, but hosting them isn’t, and typically starts at £100 + vat per year. Trainflow has lower-priced options than this (click here to see them), but think what you want your web site to do before seizing the very cheapest. It is sensible to leave yourself room for growth: many people who were afraid of the web have become enthusiasts once they found what they could do with it. If you really do have to economise, there are simple ways of mixing commercial and free services. The key words here are “parking” and “forwarding”.
After deciding on designing, hosting and naming, there are three more points to address:
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Getting your site listed by the search engines is tedious
Taking payment over the web needs a shopping basket, but they are costly.
Email is essential, and Outlook or Eudora make POP3 easy to use. |
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It may be that this will daunt you, but a better way to see it is as a six-step plan. And when you make one choice, you often find that another step resolves itself as well. So now that we’ve got the shape of the beast, let’s take a look at strategies to conquer it, starting with:
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